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The Agatha Christie bust, which was unveiled in September 1990 by the writers daughter, Rosalind Hicks, to commemorate the centenary of her mothers birth.

Miss Marple (the late Joan Hickson) and Hercule Poirot (David Suchet) meet at the Torquay Railway Station, as part of the Agatha Christie Centenary Celebrations in 1990. Christie never allowed the characters to meet in her books.

Agatha Christies English Riviera

Theres no mystery about the appeal of Torquay, the waterfront resort that was the birthplace of the worlds most published novelist
By Lillian Africano

n the south coast of Devon, in that part of Britain known as the English Riviera, stands the picturesque town of Torquay, a stylish resort with a bustling waterfront and a scenic palm-lined promenade. Human history here goes back half a million years, as evidenced by the startling discoveries of prehistoric tools and other remains found in Kents Cavern. And though records of settled human occupation date back to the 11th century, Torquay didnt become a winter health resort for another 800 years. Princess Victoria (who later became Queen Victoria) visited Torquay in 1890, enhancing the towns reputation as a superior resort. Four years after her visit, the Princess Gardens, which still face Torquay harbor, were built on reclaimed land, as was the Pavilion, which opened in 1912 and served as an elegant theater and concert hall. More celebrated visitors followed Victoria, including the Russian Romanov family, which built a holiday

home called Villa Syracusa, now the Overmead Hotel; the Prince of Wales; Countess Alexandra Tolstoy, wife of novelist Leo Tolstoy; Elizabeth Barrett Browning; Rudyard Kipling; Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of the Sherlock Holmes stories; and Charles Darwin, who finished The Origin of the Species while staying in Torquay. But one celebrity, more than any other, is identified with the town: Agatha Christie, the most published novelist in the world, with two billion books in 50 languages in print. Online games based on her mysteries have had 30 million downloads. Though she was named a Dame of the British Empire in 1971, Christie is perhaps best known as the Queen of Crime, creator of the iconic detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple.

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The Grand Hotel, where Agatha and her husband Archie spent their brief honeymoon.

Dame Agatha was born in Torquay on September 15, 1890. Every year, in mid-September, the town commemorates her birthday. This past September, I joined the legions of fans who converged on Torquay to celebrate the 120th anniversary of Christies birth in a weeklong festival of murder, mayhem, and mischief. The celebration included some 40 events, among them appearances by Julia McKenzie, the new Miss Marple featured in the BBC films; a Hercule Poirot lookalike; and Christies grandson, Mathew Pritchard. The schedule also included an old-fashioned English fete with period costumes, a production of Witness for the Prosecution, and a grand birthday party with fireworks. Dame Agatha was an intrepid traveler and explorer who visited Egypt and the Middle East and met her second husband, Max Mallowan, while she was viewing an excavation. In her imagination, she saw crime everywhere she went. The result: Murder in Mesopotamia, They Came to Baghdad, and Death on the Nile. Christie rode the famous Venice-Simplon Express to Istanbul and, like all upper-class Britons of the time, stopped at the Pera Palace. She may even have written Murder on the Orient Express there. (Her room, 411, is now called the Agatha Christie Room.) But it was the people and places of her own hometown of Torquay, in the idyllic rural county of Devon, that really fired Christie's murderous imagination, resulting in no fewer than 15 mysteries, some set in her own gracious Georgian home, X ELEGANT ACCENTS FALL 2010

Greenway. Like other Christie devotees, I was eager to visit the landmarks of Dame Agathas lifeand the murder settings in her stories. The Torquay Tourist Centre on Vaughan Parade has a leaflet on the Agatha Christie Mile, so called because it takes in many of the locations that have Christie connections. The faded but still lovely Pavilion was where Agatha went to many concerts, including one she attended with Archie Christie, her first husband. A few steps from the Pavilion is the Agatha Christie bust, which was unveiled in September 1990 by the writers daughter, Rosalind Hicks, to commemorate the centenary of her mothers birth. Along the picturesque seafront is the Grand Hotel, where, in December 1913, Agatha and Archie spent their brief honeymoon before he shipped overseas to fight in World War I. The marriage didnt lastArchie turned out to be what the Brits call a rotter who cheated on his wifebut the hotel did, and today its a favorite with visitors to Torquay. Though the Grand is a four-star property with plenty of amenities, prices here are much lower than they are in London, with winter rates for double rooms starting as low as 74, about $117 US. Another hotel, the Imperial (which Christie renamed the Majestic), plays a role in her writing. Its the setting of the opening chapter of Peril at End House and is described as in its own grounds on a headland overlooking the sea. The gardens of the hotel lay below us freely interspersed with palm trees. The sea was of a deep and lovely blue. Today the modernized Imperial

Lobby of the Imperial Hotel, the setting for the opening chapter of "Peril at End House.

is part of the Barcelo hotel group and offers fall/winter pricing as low as 59, or approximately $93 US for a double room. During the war, Agatha worked as a nurse at Torquay Town Hall, which served as a Red Cross hospital. When she transferred

to the Dispensary, she studied with Torquays leading pharmacist and learned all about the poisons that were to become her preferred murder method. ELEGANT ACCENTS FALL 2010 X

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The HiFlyer balloon ride soars above 800-year-old Torre Abbey, site of the Agatha Christie Potent Plants Garden.

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At 800-year-old Torre Abbey, head gardener Ali Marshall has created an homage to the novelists fondness for toxins: the Agatha Christie Potent Plants Garden, an instantly recognizable cornucopia of grow-your-own agents of homicidedwarf peaches and nectarines, whose fruit stones produce cyanide, used in Sparkling Cyanide; deadly nightshade, the weapon in The Caribbean Mystery; and aconite, which dispatched several characters in 4.50 from Paddington. Other treasures are found at the Agatha Christie Gallery of the Torquay Museum, including a vast collection of photographs of the writer and her life in the town where she had been born. The images show a more innocent time when pleasures were simpler: afternoon tea at the Marine Spa, concerts at the Pavilion Theatre, roller-skating on the Princess Pier. A charming picture captures Agatha skating in an ankle-length skirt and a big feathered hat. In addition to many of the writers personal items, theres a history of the actors who played Poirot, starting with Charles Laughton in his 1928 West End performance. (My least favorite was Albert Finney, who turned in a near-cartoonish performance in the 1974 Hollywood version of Murder on the Orient Express.) A highlight of my visit to the English Riviera was a tour of Greenway, the 400-year-old holiday home Dame Agatha purchased in 1938 for 6,000. To reach the house, which is located on the River Dart, I took the vintage Greenway bus; the house is also accessible by ferry (which I rode on the return trip) and by car (advance parking reservations are necessary). Greenway was donated to the National Trust by Christies family, and in 2009, after a restoration that cost 5.4 million (roughly $8.5 million US), it was opened to the public. Stuffed with weird, wacky, and wonderful things, the Georgian house is warm and welcoming and very much alive, as if Dame Agatha herself might still be in residence. A pile of gardening hats belonging to her son-in-law rests on a table in the entrance hall, along with a (really) vintage mobile phone that looks as if it weighs 10 pounds. The authors personal collectionspapier mache, pottery, ceramics, pictures, books,

D EVO N C R E A M T E A

f there is a single dish that is most identified with idyllic Devon, it is the Cream Tea, a feast for the late afternoonor for any time at all. As a daughter of Torquay, Dame Agatha often enjoyed this simple trio of scones, strawberry jam and Devon clotted cream, and today, when visitors come to her corner of England, a fine Cream Tea shows up on many a to-do list of attractions. Thanks to the areas lush grasslands and breed of Devon cows, Double Devon Cream is just what it sounds like: the creamiest of creams, so thick that a knife can stand up in it. There is talk now that one of the top producers of this cream may make it available, for now, what is available are the jars of clotted cream and double Devon cream sold in gourmet markets. While theyre not as nutty, sweet and silky as the fresh version served in Devon, they still make for a tasty Cream Tea. Recipe for scones and jam for Devon Cream Tea, Courtesy of Richard Hunt, award-winning Head Chef, Grand Hotel, Torquay

Homemade Strawberry Jam

Scones

8 ounces all purpose flour 2 ounces superfine sugar 2 ounces butter ounce powdered milk 1 teaspoon baking powder pint buttermilk Blend all the dry ingredients, then work the butter in with your fingers as you would for a pastry. Add the buttermilk to gently create a soft dough; do not overwork. Roll out gently, either with your hands or with a rolling pin. Cut the scones with a round form to your desired size (the top of a drinking glass will work). Glaze the scones with a beaten egg, then bake at 370 degrees F. for about 12 minutes or until they are risen and golden in color.

2 pounds strawberries 1 pounds superfine sugar Juice of 2 lemons 3 Tablespoons of liquid pectin OR 2 ounces powdered pectin Before beginning to cook, put a plate in the refrigerator; this is for testing to see if your jam is done. Wash and hull the berries, then break them up a bit. In a large pot, heat the strawberries and sugar and bring to a rapid boil Add the lemon juice and pectin and bring back to a boil. As your mixture thickens, you can remove the cold plate from the refrigerator and start testing the jam by putting a teaspoon on the plate. If you get a ruffle on the plate when you push the teaspoon of jam, it is finished. If not, return the plate to the refrigerator and keep cooking until you do get the ruffle. When your jam cools, serve it with your scones and whatever version of clotted cream you are able to buy in your area.

and morefill the rooms, which are light and airy, creating a 1930s setting with an overlay of 1950s amenities. In each room are scrapbooks containing Christies notes on parties and entertainments, dinner menus, as well as the sweet trivia of life at Greenway, which she described as the loveliest place in the world. Dame Agathas presence is felt throughout the home, especially when a recording of her voice is played, in which she talks about her career in a matter-of-fact way, saying she made notes on plots as they occurred to her, but then had to find time to do the writing. Before leaving Greenway, I checked out the section of the house that had been turned into a five-bedroom rental apartment that sleeps 10 (rent is about 2700, or $4,294 US, a week in high season, much less in winter). The furniture here is from the Christie collection and the kitchen is pure 1950s, making this

a dream spot for fans who are also lovers of all things retro. A special treat was lunch in Christies own kitchen, dining on chicken cooked in a vintage Aga, followed by a luscious bread pudding. (Lunch is priced at a modest 15around $23 USfor two courses.) A final Christie adventure was a ride on the Paignton to Dartmouth Steam Railway, a vintage train that runs seven miles following the coast and the River Dart. Dame Agatha often took this journey, getting off at Churston Station to continue by car to her home at Greenway. She used the train in The ABC Murders and again in Dead Mans Folly. When it was time to return home, I felt as if I was not only leaving a place, but also a timeone I could revisit by reading a favorite Agatha Christie novel. For more information on the English Riviera, go to www.visitengland.com and www.englishriviera.co.uk ELEGANT ACCENTS FALL 2010 X